Latin America and the Asian tiger economies
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 20 May 2024
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Go back 50 years and Latin America was generally wealthier than East Asia. But that has been reversed.
While the economies of East and South East Asia have taken off, enjoying a so-called "economic miracle", Latin America’s have experienced only tepid growth, despite the region’s enormous potential. Gideon Long asks why.
We go to Singapore, one of the most open and business friendly nations on earth, to visit a factory making credit cards using the latest computer chips. And we ask economists what Latin America can learn from the 'Asian Tigers'.
(Image: A photograph of a tourist boat in Singapore next to a drone view shot showing buildings in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Credit: Reuters/EPA)
Presented and produced by Gideon Long Reporter: Monica Miller
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service with me, Gideon Long. |
| 0:06.8 | All this week, we're looking at the economies of Latin America. |
| 0:10.2 | Yesterday, we heard about some of the obstacles that have held the region back. |
| 0:14.5 | Today, we're comparing the Latin American nations with the Tiger Economies of East Asia. |
| 0:19.6 | We'll take you to Singapore. |
| 0:21.7 | It's changed tremendously over the 50 years. |
| 0:24.4 | When I first came to Singapore, it was a swamp. |
| 0:27.6 | We worked very close to investors. |
| 0:29.2 | If they needed us to build roads, we would build roads. |
| 0:31.7 | If they needed us to move trees, |
| 0:33.9 | we would move these and replant these trees |
| 0:36.3 | to straighten the roads for their manufacturing plants. |
| 0:39.9 | Why haven't Latin America's economies had their own version of the East Asian economic miracle of recent decades? |
| 0:46.0 | Korea and other countries like Taiwan, for example, they turned to the rest of the world and they integrated, |
| 0:52.6 | which is something that Brazil never did. What can Latin Americans learn from their peers on the other side of the world and they integrated, which is something that Brazil never did. |
| 0:54.6 | What can Latin Americans learn from their peers on the other side of the world? |
| 0:58.3 | That's what we're exploring on this edition of Business Daily. |
| 1:09.0 | Step into the Business Daily time machine with, and let's head back to 1980. |
| 1:13.8 | The state has no source of money other than the money people earn themselves. |
| 1:20.4 | Margaret Thatcher has launched her economic revolution in the United Kingdom. |
| 1:24.4 | And in the US, |
| 1:25.3 | Ronald Reagan appears to be heading toward a landslide electoral victory tonight across the United Kingdom. And in the US, Ronald Reagan appears to be heading toward a landslide electoral victory tonight across |
... |
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